Spending life in prison for the brutal killing of the former mayor of Humatak, defendant Rudy Fegurgur Quinata is fighting to have his conviction overturned. His appeal was argued before the high court today. Justices are now mulling over their decision.

One year after being sentenced to spend life behind bars for the brutal killing of former mayor Daniel Sanchez, Quinata had his appeals hearing in the Supreme Court of Guam. The defense contends just as they did at trial that co-defendant Joyner Scott Sked was the lone killer.

Quinata’s attorney, Peter Santos, argued prosecutors did not have enough evidence, and alleged the lower court abused its discretion when it failed to hold a hearing over an apparent jury misconduct. "The deliberations was protracted. It went on for a very long time. One of the things the court could have gleaned had it done the evidentiary hearing was when exactly in time was that extraneous information introduced. We have in the record the complaining juror stated that after the information was introduced then the straw polling went in the opposite direction towards guilt…twice the court called the jury foreman in to ask how they are doing and twice they said no."

"Then all of a sudden on the third time it looks like they are going in one direction. The big question is when exactly. And if there was an evidentiary hearing then they could have gleaned this," he said.

Prosecuting attorney Marianne Woloshuck argued the verdict was correct, saying, "Maybe something else will happen with the jury misconduct but if you go through our evidence, which we listed in detail, the defendant says there is nothing like DNA and fingerprints. That is just the nature of this case. Somebody left the victim’s body in this climate for several days so of course, evidence is going to degrade. There’s plenty of circumstantial evidence. The jury could have inferred that there was animosity between the defendant and the victim because when the defendant first showed up he appeared to have been in an argument with his girlfriend."

"So maybe he was in a bad mood. His girlfriend jumped on the victim and gave him a hug and kiss, so maybe the defendant got jealous at that. The defendant and victim had a conversation and said something about respect, which comes right after that. Later on, the neighbor heard the defendant saying F-U and then there was some hearsay that the defendant’s girlfriend said the defendant was punching the victim. There was no objection at the trial and it was not brought up on appeal. Then, the jury could also infer that the defendant and the victim were together when the victim died. One of the witnesses saw the victim drive away with the defendant and his girlfriend. The neighbor saw the three of the them under the canopy at the defendant’s house."

In April 2021, Sanchez was stabbed with scissors and bludgeoned with a hammer. His body was left in Quinata's residence with the door padlocked. During the trial, the defense argued Sked alone stabbed and killed the former mayor and that Quinata ran away in fear.

"There was blood all over the place," said Woloshuck. "The victim’s show still had the laces tied which means there was a violent struggle. The inside of the home was in disarray. The defendant locked the victim in the house when he left. He didn’t contact 911 or emergency or GPD. He had this strange behavior in the days after that could be interpreted as consciousness of guilt. He disappeared for several days. He left his phone by the shore where he may have been washing off blood. He was irritated and in a hurry to get emergency money. He used the victim’s last name when he identified himself to someone. He wanted to go to Hagatna where the jail is and turn himself in and be arrested."

Still, Attorney Santos told the justices in the Supreme Court of Guam today that the case should be sent back to the superior court.

"There’s a lot more circumstantial evidence that would negate the high standard of reasonable doubt," he said. "The government in its brief was cherry picking the information. There’s a lot of things in the record that negate what the government is asserting like for instance the government states the facts suggest an altercation between Quinata and Daniel, which the later lost. There is evidence of a struggle and a brutal murder. The evidence of Rudy yelling F-U. That could have been finding what happened and him yelling at Sked. It does not necessarily point to him having an altercation with Mr. Sanchez. All of the information that the government relies on does not rise to pointing that Mr. Quinata did anything in this case. The co-defendant stated, 'He told on me. He said he would tell.' What does that suggest?"

The high court took the matter under advisement and will issue a decision.